Homemade Pink Stationary
by Naidoo
Summary: Aaron Hotchner has to realize that Penelope is not what he thought at first. Oneshot. Inspired by 6x04 "Compromising Positions"


_A/N: Another one of the character-centrics I actually never write. But I couldn't help myself. Saw last night 6x04 - Compromising Positions again, and what Hotch says at the end of it to Garcia, it kind of inspired this little Oneshot. _

* * *

A lot of things could be said about Penelope Garcia. She certainly was special, in a lot of ways and she also was very unique. I didn't meet her until a few years ago when my division was in need of a new technical Analyst. The general rule for every division in the FBI was to avail of a large number of techs everyone within the FBI has access to. But the BAU was one of the few divisions who had their own Tech assigned. Our workloads were so high that we _needed_ our own tech.

To say the job was challenging might have been an understatement. The job was ruthless. The hours quite possibly the worst within the whole Bureau and the things you saw throughout your day were horrid and dark. When I first met her I certainly was not convinced she would be able to handle whatever was waiting for her. And if she should get the job would most likely request a transfer within the first week.

I knew her background briefly, knew _why_ she was with the bureau but I never thought she had what it takes to do the job. I underestimated her. We all did.

She handed her CV in the last day, only an hour before she was supposed to be done for the day. Until today I think she wasn't sure herself whether she wanted to go ahead with it or not, didn't know whether she wanted the job or not.

I certainly had never seen anyone just like her, let alone anywhere close. Not in the entire FBI. She was bright, sparkly and bubbly. Not just her clothes gave that away, but everything else she did as well. When she walked there was a certain bounce to it, when she spoke it was whatever came to her mind. In a lot of ways she seemed like a child, she seemed to believe in the good of everything and everyone, the innocence and wanted to change the world. Even after six years with the FBI she still held on to that ideal.

When she handed her CV in, on homemade, pink stationary I first thought she was joking. But when it came to Penelope Garcia, I soon had to realize, nothing ever was a joke. She was as serious as one could be, and just during the standard interview that was more than evident. She made an occasional joke, tried to lighten the mood, but it was evident how very serious she was about this job right from the start.

Every agent I interviewed seemed all the same as the previous one. They all had impressive CV's, degrees in various computer science courses and what seemed to be impressive knowledge, but it took more than that to make it through the job and into the BAU. You needed character as well, which all of them had I'm sure, but none of them as much as Penelope.

Her knowledge was extensive and I always had thought our previous Tech was good, but he had nothing on Penelope. No one had. As bright as the colors she wore were, as bright was she. She might not have been a Dr. Spencer Reid, but she wasn't far off either.

It took her a total of five minutes I believe until she had the whole BAU team falling for her – especially the men. Derek Morgan, our resident Casanova was first to fall and Reid wasn't far behind. Jason was never into expressing these kinds of emotions very well, but even he couldn't escape the spell she was casting on all of us – even JJ and Elle.

She had a rather interesting connection with Morgan to say the least. Personally I like to think she just knew how to handle him. From all the women in his life, she was probably causing the biggest challenge, an equal if you like.

The special bond she seemed to share with Reid was surprising even me. Often misunderstood and written off as weird Spencer Reid had a certain way of not getting along with the general mankind very well – especially women. But not Penelope. She seemed to actually understand him better than most of us.

In a lot of ways she changed all our jobs, our lives actually. She brought a little bit of sparkle, a lot of color and definitely very much live into them. Things were never boring with her, even when it was in the middle of the darkest of cases, she still managed to find that one positive thing, that ray of light that made it all seem so much better. And often I thought, she herself was just that.

The week I initially thought she'd manage to do the job turned into months, which turned into years, And even now, after nearly seven years I still don't think the job will ever get to her. She had her moments, we all have, but she always managed to bounce back, being more colorful then before.

And color seemed to be the word best used to describe our resident tech. Because everything she did, she did with plenty of color. Preferably on homemade pink stationary.


End file.
